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Pennsylvania counties in the red phase are under a Stay at Home Order through June 4. Beginning at 12:01 a.m., Friday, May 15, 13 counties will move from red to yellow, including: Allegheny, Armstrong, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Fayette, Fulton, Greene, Indiana, Somerset, Washington and Westmoreland.

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Hazzouri

Scranton dentist Dr. Albert Hazzouri loves dropping the name of his friend, President Donald Trump, in the course of doing business.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that Hazzouri tried to get the federal government to buy coronavirus test kits from his associates. Hazzouri mentioned his Trump connection when he encountered resistance, the newspaper reported.

Two years ago, Hazzouri alluded to his Trump friendship as he sought a Florida dental license before state regulators.

Repeated efforts to reach Hazzouri on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

Citing unnamed sources involved with the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s operations, The New York Times reported Hazzouri repeatedly called FEMA officials and a separate team of Trump administration volunteers working on procurement. He wanted to help facilitate the purchase of about 100,000 kits from Mexico.

Hazzouri, 64, also mentioned his friendship with Trump while trying to obtain a

In a 24-hour period this week, over a dozen coronavirus patients died at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, as multiple medical workers inside the public hospital told ABC News they are overwhelmed, treating “hundreds of COVID-19 patients.”

Dr. Colleen Smith, an emergency care physician at the hospital, described the area where the COVID-19 patients are being treated as “a parking lot of stretchers.” As one emergency care physician told ABC News plainly, “this is ground zero.” The city health department sent out a release on Tuesday, calling the 545-bed hospital in Elmhurst “the center of this crisis.”

The city of New York now has more than 17,000 coronavirus cases, nearly one-third of the nation’s total. The borough of Queens has the highest number, with over 5,000 cases. There have been 280 deaths in the city, according to officials.

A widely shared local television video of last week’s news conference, which was posted on YouTube, reached more than 5 million views and was amplified by Elon Musk and Fox News, where Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Artin Massihi appeared on primetime shows two nights in a row.

The video has since been taken down by YouTube for violating the platform’s policy on misinformation, a YouTube spokesperson said.

The doctors, who are not epidemiologists and who own and operate urgent care centers in the Bakersfield area, held the news conference on April 22 to share their conclusions about the results of 5,213 coronavirus tests at their clinics, extrapolating their findings to the California population as a whole.

“Do we need to still shelter in place? Our answer is emphatically no. Do we need businesses to be shut down? Emphatically no. Do we need to test them and get them back … Read More

Media captionDr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: “We must all act together now to limit further spread”

The new coronavirus has been declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization, as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.

“The main reason for this declaration is not what is happening in China but what is happening in other countries,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The concern is that it could spread to countries with weaker health systems.

Meanwhile, the US has told its citizens not to travel to China.

The state department issued a level four warning – having previously urged Americans to “reconsider” travel to China – and said any citizens in China “should consider departing using commercial means”.

China has said it will send charter plans to bring back Hubei province residents who are overseas “as soon as possible”.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading from person-to-person. Someone who is actively sick with COVID-19 can spread the illness to others. That is why CDC recommends that these patients be isolated either in the hospital or at home (if they are clinically stable) until they are better and no longer pose a risk of infecting others.

How long someone is actively sick can vary, so the decision on when to release someone from isolation is made on a case-by-case basis in consultation with doctors, infection prevention and control experts, and public health officials and involves considering specifics of each situation, including disease severity, illness signs and symptoms, and results of laboratory testing for that patient.

Current CDC guidance for when it is OK to release someone from isolation is made on a case by case basis and includes, at a minimum, meeting all of the following requirements:

The coronavirus might be dominating the headlines right now, but that doesn’t mean that kids should stop caring for their teeth. With social distancing in place, it is far more crucial than ever to do what you can at home to reduce the need to leave the house. Going to your kids dentist should be something you do in an emergency only.

Protecting your kids’ mouths during coronavirus is all about keeping up healthy habits. But what does this look like in practice during COVID-19? Let’s take a look.

Brushing For Two Minutes, Twice Per Day, And Flossing Regularly

Children will initially resist cleaning their teeth. The sensation of having a toothbrush and toothpaste in their mouth is unpleasant for some. But that doesn’t mean that parents should give up encouraging them to look after their oral health. The vast majority of children become accustomed to daily brushing and eventually

Over the past few weeks researchers have been discreetly studying a new potential treatment for COVID-19 — and it might not be what you expect.

The treatment in question is called famotidine, and it’s the active ingredient in Pepcid, an over-the-counter medication commonly used to alleviate heartburn.

Since March 13, researchers at Northwell Health, a network of hospitals in New York, have been enrolling patients hospitalized with COVID-19 into their study of famotidine, which is being delivered through an IV in megadoses nine times greater than the typical over-the-counter dose. The drug is being given in combination with the much-touted antimalarial hydroxychloroquine.

Researchers said some data on safety will be available “in a few weeks,” but did not say when data will be available showing whether the drug combination is effective.

Dr. Kevin Tracey, CEO and president of the Feinsteins Institute for Medical Research at Northwell Health, says the study